|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Feb 24, 2015 |
"Call your mom, call your dad. If you're lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call 'em. Don't text, don't email. Call them on the phone. Tell them you love them and thank them and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you, Mom and Dad." J.K. Simmons, in his acceptance speech Sunday night after winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
2014 Montana Politics & 2015 Legislature
Montana Department of Commerce
- Montana film tax incentive in danger of not being renewed
Each year, a handful of films are shot in the state, and they aren't small-time, either. Last year, "Nebraska," a film partially shot in Montana, was nominated for the best picture Academy Award.
- Montana House revives bill to help kids with disabilities graduate
The bill would allow local school boards to decide whether to allow students with disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome to stay in high school until age 21. They now have to leave school at age 19, when the state cuts off education funding.
Northwestern Energy
- Montana Department of Commerce Awards Grants to Five Communities for Downtown Improvement Efforts
"The Montana Main Street Program helps communities strengthen and preserve their historic downtowns and Main Streets," said Director O'Leary.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- How to fix that high electric bill
Here's everything you need to know to curb your power bills right now.
Great Falls Development Authority
- The Montana Office of Tourism Presents Real Montana
Submit a one minute video highlighting what you love about Montana for a chance at $40,000.
- Montana Places we love: Bannack State Park
Bannack, once a bustling mining camp, first territorial capital of Montana and birthplace of vigilante justice, is now a state park. Here, the past is present and the music still stirs the soul.
- Order a free Glacier Country Montana Travel Guide
If you would like to receive a free Glacier Country Travel Guide, please complete all fields of the following form.
- Montana Traveler Website Updated
Are you planning to travel or vacation in Montana this year? Montana Traveler can help you find attractions, things to do, hotels, and much more. Enjoy!
Inteneo Systems
- Great Falls Development Authority looks to expand manufacturing in Great Falls
There are a lot of factors that make manufacturing a good fit for northcentral Montana -- the labor availability, the land availability and our location to hot markets.
- Here's the GFDA Top 21 for this week (2/23/14), celebrating great things happening to move Great Falls Forward.
Untame your entrepreneurial spirit!
Come Home Montana
- Financial Institutions- Data Analysis is Essential to Optimizing Sales, Operations, Service and Planning - Case Studies
Manage through the windshield instead of the rear-view-mirror
- How Do You Make Data Something That's Engrained In Your Company's Culture?
This talk will cover what it takes to get your organization into shape to manage data and deliver real benefits from it, from both a technology and business angle.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunities - Chemist, Application and Research Microbiologist, Lab Bench Technician, and Several Intern Positions - Blue Marble Biomaterials
Our mission is to replace petroleum-based chemicals with fully sustainable, zero carbon specialty chemicals. We believe a renewable economy has arrived. Our part in this new economy is to create a more efficient, sustainable supply of specialty chemicals.
- The best states for well-being -- #5 is Montana
#5 Montana Big Sky Country did pretty well for itself, ranking No. 2 in the community category and coming in the top 10 in the purpose, community and physical categories.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Technical Support Engineer - Dematic
Dematic Corp is seeking a Technical Support Engineer to work in our Dematic CMMS division located in Big Fork, Montana.
- Montana Career Opportunities - Controller, Web Developer/Programmer, Network Administrator - Missoulian
Whether you're just starting out or looking for a place to step up, our company is a great place to work and build a career.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Program Specialist - Montana Technology Innovation Partnership
This position serves as the program specialist for the development, administration, and implementation of the statewide Montana Technology Innovation Partnership (MTIP) program.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Lending & Business Development Associate - Great Falls Development Authority
Exceptional professional sought for new position to support our commercial lending and business development efforts.
Montana Economic Development
- Breadwinners: Missoula's Le Petit Outre nominated for James Beard Award
Missoula's Le Petit Outre bakery is competing among dozens of restaurants from bigger cities like Portland, Seattle and New York.
- Montana Outdoor Survival Instructor Rod Alne, President of The Peak, Inc. Featured in Outdoor Life Magazine
"We take a common sense approach to survival equipment and training, and I believe that separates The Peak from others doing this type of work."
- Missoula's Planetary Design - Providing the full solution to Store It, Make It, Take It.
Planetary Design has grown from its award-winning Double Shot French Press Mug to a full line of stellar stainless steel French Press coffee makers, french press mugs, tea infuser mugs, travel mugs and food storage kitchen canisters.
- Great Harvest Bread Company - Montana Success Story
Combining pure, simple ingredients with a deep respect for Montana values turned out to be a perfect recipe for growth at Great Harvest Bread Company.
- Rural Montana entrepreneur: Here you make your own job
"Our customer base is the whole Golden Triangle," she said. "We always want something new."
- Recruiting a challenge for Montana manufacturers
While hiring is difficult, HCR has never considered moving. "I'd never consider living anywhere else," Jackson said.
- The Ultimate Guide to Franchise Due Diligence, Great Harvest Edition
Before you partner with the Great Harvest franchise, we want you to be confident that for you the opportunity outweighs the risk, the potential rewards outweigh the hard work, and that this is a business and business model that you feel passionate about.
- Travel Cafe now with offices in Billings, Great Falls, Bozeman and Missoula
Talk to a Travel Advocate about the many adventure opportunities for both adults and families in Montana, Wyoming, California, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, British Columbia, Alberta (Banff), Costa Rica, Ecuador (Galapagos), Mexico, and Peru.
Careers
- Governor Bullock & Agriculture Development Council Award $208,000 in Growth Through Agriculture Awards
"Agriculture is not only at the heart of Montana's communities, it is part of the backbone of our state's economy." Gov. Steve Bullock
Come Home Washington
- Americans think communication is the most important skill to get ahead -- are we right?
But that's not to say that STEM skills were overlooked entirely.
- Guy Kawasaki - My Advice to 22 Year-Olds
Here's some advice based on thirty-eight more years of living than you have.
Come Home North Dakota
- Washington Career Opportunities - Associate Director - Williamsworks
williamsworks draws on over a decade of experience working with the world's most influential philanthropists, corporations and social innovators to tackle problems both global and local.
Government
- Coffee shop manager came to Williston, North Dakota for love, not oil
"Back home, it just felt like I was missing something," she said. "So that's when I decided I was leaving for North Dakota." R
Idaho Business
- Loss of federal funds trouble western Montana counties
Just as perplexing: How do you dig out by taxing a conservative, sparsely populated county that elects its officials on the premise that they won't?
Regional Business
- Innovation Increasingly Defines Boise State and Boise
The Morrison Center epitomizes organizational creativity in unexpected places.
Regional Economic Development
- How Chipotle is forcing sit-down chains like Olive Garden to rethink lunch
The industry is struggling to turnaround years of decline as time-strapped customers opt for fast-casual joints such as Chipotle and Panera Bread and remain wary of an outing that feels like an indulgence.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Investing in Manufacturing Community Partnership (IMCP) Program --Application Strategy Session--
Launched in 2013, the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) program is a national competition that designates up to 12 manufacturing communities.
Education
- Why schools are failing our boys
The lack of movement and rigid restrictions associated with modern schooling are killing my son's soul.
- These Colleges Give Every Student a Job
"By the time I go into the job market, I'll already have four years of experience under my belt that I can talk about."
- Your Kid's School Is Missing the Tech Revolution, and It's All Your Fault
For the last couple of decades, entrepreneurs and academics have struggled to find ways bring some of the Internet's disruptive force to the education system--only to be stymied by predictably sclerotic bureaucracies and overcautious government agencies.
- We Should Be Teaching Our Students Like Yoda Taught Luke
We have to go faster and further so we reach more students, sooner, with models that we know work.
Montana Education Excellence
- Pat Williams Appointed To Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education By Gov. Bullock
By promoting innovation, cooperation, resource sharing, and sound public policy, WICHE strengthens higher education's contributions to the region's social, economic, and civic life."
- Oxford Business Dean: MBA Programs Should Be More Than Driving Schools
We're missing one step: Exactly where should our graduates head? Business schools have been largely agnostic on this question.
- All Students Should Receive Federal Money for College, Report Proposes
This report is the first in what will be a series of policy recommendations on how best to break down barriers to higher education through changes in the federal student-aid system.
- One vision of tomorrow's college: Cheap, and you get an education, not a degree
Organizations competing for students -- some existing colleges, many others businesses and nonprofits yet to be created -- will incorporate increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence into their educational designs.
- University of Redlands Integrates High-Tech Mapping Throughout Curriculum
"Digital data is becoming such a ubiquitous part of our lives," Moore said. "We think it's a key part of literacy."
- 10 Business Courses You May Have Missed In School
Here is my list of useful courses that we wish existed, but as far as I know, still aren't generally available:
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Email mixup costs Dawson Community College $1.4 million in grant money
Kafkaesque confusion over a government application system has left Dawson Community College without a $1.4 million federal grant the school relies on to provide tutoring and support for disadvantaged students.
- Montana State University earns top Montana spot on list ranking U.S. public colleges
With an enrollment of more than 15,000 students, MSU offers more than 125 major options within its colleges and programs.
- First-generation Montana college applicants give back
Helena Upward Bound coordinator Cory Chenoweth said the day is about helping "them grow as a student and as a person and it certainly doesn't hurt giving another thing to add to college applications."
- University of Montana students, staff cheer J.K. Simmons' Oscar win
J.K. Simmons became the first University of Montana alum to win an Oscar for acting on Sunday night.
Community
- Investments in higher ed paying off for Montana
"It's our honor to be part of a project that we think is going to put Montana on the map for a long time to come," said Mike Halligan, executive director of the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.
- MSU Students + Montana Association Of Geographic Information Professionals (MAGIP)Meet-Up, 3/4, Bozeman
MAGIP is the greatest assembly of GIS professionals throughout Montana and sadly, many students graduate in the geospatial sciences not even knowing the benefits that a MAGIP connection can offer them.
- U Of M Students + The Montana Association Of Geographic Information Professionals (MAGIP) Social, 2/25, Missoula, MT
MAGIP is the greatest assembly of GIS professionals throughout Montana and sadly, many students graduate in the geospatial sciences not even knowing the benefits that a MAGIP connection can offer them.
Funding and Building your Business
- ONE Montana - What We've Been Doing - February, 2015
We had a great kickoff to 2015, thanks to your support last year. Here is a brief synopsis of what we accomplished and what's next for 2015.
- The Benefits of a Better Town-and-Gown Relationship
Perhaps the next big thing in local government ought to be a "higher education relations officer" who leverages universities' assets to benefit the cities they're in.
Energy and Climate Change
- Great Entrepreneurs Sell Solutions, Not Technology
The best companies find a way to drive the market with a solution based on their technology, rather than push their new technology as the solution for the marketplace.
- SBA Announces New Online Tool To Match Lenders to Entrepreneurs
By directly connecting with prospective borrowers, the agency will be able to provide more guidance and ensure more capital is reaching our nation's entrepreneurs.
GIS Technology
- Register now for the Western Governors' Drought Forum Webinar Series
During the webinar, panelists will highlight how utilities, technology developers, NGOs and citizens are teaming up to reduce municipal consumption of water.
- Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as "deliverables" that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Utah Mapping Partnership Aims to Build Live Data-Sharing Framework
A new partnership in Utah is looking to take geospatial understanding to the next level.
Transportation
- Montana's Circle of American Masters
Life here can test the human spirit, but Montanans have found many ways to express the relationship with the land. Something in Montana's landscape nudges, pushes, and even shoves the creative spirit.
- A Proposal for a New Set of Bike Rules
We are entering an era where biking and walking are increasingly important parts of the overall transportation picture, but we're behind when it comes to establishing the rules, norms and etiquette that will help the different modes work together.
- Low Great Falls airport fares expected to continue
"We've definitely been on an upswing," said Airport Director John Faulkner, crediting increased Canadian use of commercial flights and economic conditions improving in Great Falls.
- Tweaking incentives could aid the adoption of electric vehicles
Designing incentive schemes for green technology adoption requires a comprehensive understanding of how firms and consumers will respond to them.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page